King of the World
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Caroline finds herself in New Orleans, ready to bump into an old flame. Maybe she has just wanted to get out of Mystic Falls for a while, but the pair soon discover that there are deeper reasons for Caroline's venture to Louisiana. On the other hand, Klaus is having his own New Orleans-related problems too, and Caroline is soon caught in the middle.
1. Chapter 1 - The Arrival

A.N: This is my first time writing Vampire Diaries, but I've been shipping Klaroline so hard for several weeks now so I had to get it out of my system.

Summary: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Caroline finds herself in New Orleans, knowing she will bump into an old flame. It seems like she has just wanted to get out of Mystic Falls for a while, but the pair soon discover that there are deeper reasons for Caroline's venture to Louisiana. On the other hand, Klaus is having his own New Orleans-related problems too, and it could be that Caroline gets caught in the middle of it.

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><p><em>Chapter One<em>

Caroline had seen hundreds of pictures of New Orleans, and heard a thousand stories of how amazing the city was, but no tale or image could describe how _beautiful _the place really was to the naked eye.

Even during the night, and where she stood now - at the foot of a double-signed streetlamp. One street was Bourbon, and the other was Toulouse. She had initially been irritated; having to lurk on the corner like a common hooker, but now that she was standing there, admiring the beauty of the life that was whirring around her, she didn't really mind.

The multi-floored buildings along either street were painted all different, vibrant colours; no one structure was completely architecturally the same as another. The little balconies were adorned with planters and the windows had shutters, painted to clash the colour of the brickwork. Fairy lights gleamed in the windows, and the neon signs on the lower floors glowed, casting light on her face. Saxaphone music was echoing in the distance, and girls within the buildings tittered and laughed. An empty carriage suddenly stopped beside her, pulled by two tawny horses and led by a middle-aged, dark-skinned man. Caroline smiled, and reached out to stroke the nearest horse, patting down it's pretty mane.

"Can I give you a ride anywhere, little lady?" the man asked her in his Southern accent. "You look a little wet."

Caroline remembered it had been raining, and a quick glance at her reflection in a nearby blacked out window made her cringe. Her mascara was running down her face, and her blonde hair was plastered to her scalp, giving her a very unattractive rat-like appearance. She rolled her eyes. "Damn it," she muttered, plucking at wet hunks of hair around her head. "No, sir. I'm waiting for someone. But thank you, though," she replied to the horseman.

"Suit yourself," he returned, and the horses slowly headed down Bourbon Street, their hooves _clip-clopping_ in the puddles. Caroline sighed, watching after the carriage wistfully. The seats were padded, and it was decorated with the same kind of red, warm-looking fairy lights that were in the windows of the surrounding buildings.

"Well, you're earlier than I expected," a familiar British voice sounded, echoing over the bustling sounds of the city. Caroline spun around on her heel, to stare at the man ahead of her. "I thought it would be another century or so before we met again."

"Klaus," Caroline replied, a little hoarsely. It had only been a year or so since she saw him last, but he didn't look any different. He had the same smirk, slightly lopsided. The same way he walked towards her slowly, with his arms behind his back. When he reached her, his smirk widened, into a genuine smile, and he reached out to cup the side of her face.

"I've missed you, Caroline."


	2. Chapter 2 - Indiscretions

A.N: Thanks for all the follows on this story! I'd really love it if you read it and would leave a teensy little review to let me know if you're enjoying the story!

I just want to make it clear that I've only watched up to the start of Season 5 of VD, and I've watched 2 episodes of The Originals. So please don't call me out on anything that doesn't sound right, as it might just be because I haven't watched a particular part yet :)

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><p><em>Chapter Two<em>

Several hours later, Klaus and Caroline were sat in a noisy bar on Bourbon Street, much to her disapproval (she didn't really want to be seen in public, after being soaked through by the rain). It was practically impossible to talk to one another, as a hat-wearing jazz singer was seated in a stool on the stage, playing his saxophone loudly. Klaus bought her drink after drink, and she continued to down her martinis to avoid the awkwardness that was brewing between them.

Caroline averted her gaze to the musician on the stage (who was starting to seriously bore her now), to her fingernails, that were grazing the stem of her glass. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched Klaus, who never stopped staring at her, his face unreadable as he cupped his Scotch glass, occasionally taking a swig. After several more songs, the music finally began to cease, and Caroline took her chance.

She spun around in her seat to face him. "You know, you should be watching the band, Klaus."

Klaus' face remained unreadable, nothing but the hint of a smile on his features. "I have seen this type of band play since the saxophone was invented, Caroline. But I'm pretty sure I won't ever see you looking like this again," he glanced pointedly at her hair.

Caroline knew, that without the use of a flat iron or a hairdryer, her rain-soaked hair would be turning frizzy. She rolled her eyes and groaned, grabbing her head with her hands.

"Come on, love. Let's go for a walk," Klaus said, jumping off the barstool. He held his arm out for Caroline, and she reluctantly took it, allowing Klaus to lead her outside. They walked all the way to the other end of Bourbon Street, until they came to a small clearing on a corner, with a lamplit bench in the centre. Klaus took a seat, and pulled Caroline down beside him.

"So tell me Caroline, what brings you to New Orleans?"

"You wanted me to come," Caroline responded, looking slightly confused. "Didn't you?"

"Of course, love. But I didn't expect you to arrive so soon - like I said to you earlier this evening. I assumed you would allow your epic love with Tyler to wear out before you came to me. I expected fifty years; a century - maybe more…"

"Don't," Caroline replied quickly. "Don't talk about Tyler."

Klaus raised his eyebrows sharply. "Just what have I missed in Mystic Falls, Caroline?"

Caroline sat back on the bench, and closed her eyes with a sigh.

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><p>She had been in Salvatore's weird dungeon-prison thing for too long. Sure, Caroline had previously switched off her humanity, but it had been days, no, <em>weeks <em>since she had allowed herself to feel again. Damon could see that she was feeling; that she was broken, but he was maintaining that she needed to stay there.

Funny, no one had been this condescending when Elena had her humanity switched off.

Stefan was gone, no one knew where he had jetted off to - and Elena wasn't talking to her now. It was ridiculous, really. Elena had tried to kill Caroline while her humanity was gone, and just because Caroline tried to do the same to Elena while she wasn't all there, suddenly everyone had flipped.

It had all just been too much for Caroline. When she and Elena had returned to Mystic Falls following their first year at college, she hadn't really expected for Tyler to be back. Caroline had still been trying to maintain a relationship with the hybrid, but it seemed as though Tyler had always been bitter about her one, accidental indiscretion with Klaus...

When she arrived at Mystic Falls, the first thing she did was bound up to the late Mayor's residence and burst through the threshold. She was the only vampire in town who had been invited into Tyler's house, so she didn't have to wait for an invitation. Tyler's shoes and rucksack were by the door, so she rushed up the stairs and into his bedroom, where she was positive he would be waiting for her.

Caroline had been too excited to see her boyfriend, to notice the extra pair of shoes in the doorway.

She flung the door open to Tyler's bedroom, smiling widely in the direction of his bed. But her smile soon dropped, when she realised just what was going on.

Tyler was naked, with the bedcovers covering him from the waist down. She could only see his back, and a pair of slim legs and arms wrapped around his body. He was moving backwards and forwards, and the woman beneath him was moaning, tossing back a mass of silky brown hair.

After a moment of gathering the scene before her, Caroline flew into a rage. She dashed towards the pair of them, grabbing Tyler by the nape of his neck and throwing him to the other side of the room. The woman in front of her was thin and slender, with honey-coloured skin and mean, brown eyes. "Who the fuck are you?" she screamed, the veins around her eyes protruding and her fangs emerging. She snatched the girl by the throat, and hauled her out of bed, and up against the wall.

"Caroline, put her down - you don't want to do that!" Tyler shouted from the other side of the room. He had managed to get to his feet and quickly pull some shorts on, and he was holding his hands out to her. Caroline turned her red gaze onto him, but it was too late.

A searing, mind-numbing pain shot through her brain, causing her to crumple to the ground, clutching her ears. She screamed out loud, feeling blood trickle from her ears, but the pain didn't stop. It was only when Caroline felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, the pain wore off.

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><p>Caroline relayed this much to Klaus, trying to ignore the look of obvious satisfaction on his face when she mentioned Tyler in bed with another woman.<p>

"So, the woman Tyler was sleeping with was a witch?" he asked when she had finished the tale, unable to wipe the lopsided smirk from his features.

Caroline pressed her lips together. "She was a witch he met while he was in the mountains with the other werewolves. She was worse than a witch. She was a _werewolf _as well as a witch."

Klaus raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. "And what happened next?"

She turned to face him, and smiled slightly. "Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow. But for now I'd like to sleep."

"As you wish," Klaus responded, and he stood up, holding his hand out to her. She didn't take his hand, choosing instead to get to her feet by herself, and she followed Klaus away from the corner. "I trust you are coming back home with me?"

Now it was Caroline's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Ha-ha," she remarked sarcastically. "I'm going to stay at the motel a few streets away. I've already booked a room."

"That is a shame. There's no chance I can convince you?" he persisted, continuing to smirk at her. She shook her head sharply - but she was smiling too. "Very well. But I insist on walking you there, love," he continued.

Despite Caroline's protests, Klaus linked his arm with her and led her down the street, towards her motel.

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><p>A.N: Pleeeeease R&amp;R :)<p> 


	3. Chapter 3 - Rage

_Chapter Three_

Caroline awoke early on her second day in New Orleans. She could feel the sun streaming through the motel window; she could hear a tinkle of glassware; and smell the fresh odour of blood in her nostrils.

"Wait…what?" she murmured sleepily, before bolting upright.

"Good morning, love." Klaus was sitting in the wicker chair by the door, holding two wide-set wine glasses, both of which he had filled to the brim with blood. The empty blood bags had been tipped tidily into the waste bin. He stood up, handed her one of the glasses, and then sat down at the foot of the bed. Caroline placed the glass down on the bedside table gently, and tentatively pulled the covers higher up her chest, protecting her modesty. As predicted, a smirk washed over Klaus' face. "Nothing I haven't seen before, darling."

"What are you doing here?" she hissed. "How did you get in?"

"That's the beauty of a hotel, motel, B&B – they're all open to the public. We don't need an invitation," Klaus told her. "You see, I couldn't sleep much last night. I had so hoped you would come home with me, and I struggled to stop thinking about what has happened to you in Mystic Falls. I was hoping you would elaborate a little more – and leave out no details about Tyler's indiscretions."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. "You're cruel."

"But that's why you like me so much," Klaus replied, baring his teeth in a smile. "So please, continue with the story. I'm so desperate to know what has been going on."

"Couldn't I at least wake up and have a shower first?" Caroline exclaimed. "I haven't even had breakfast. Klaus, you can't just _barge _in here and start _demanding—"_

"—I can do what I like, Caroline – I am the King of New Orleans, after all."

"Well, I don't live in New Orleans, so you're not the boss of me," grumbled Caroline. She clambered out of the bed, wrapping the bed sheet firmly around her, and stalked into the bathroom.

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><p>After Tyler cheated on her, Caroline felt like everything just crumbled.<p>

She thought that he would just vanish from Mystic Falls with his new girlfriend, like he did every other time there was a potential threat – but it seemed he was comfortable with his witchy-wolf friend. Tyler started openly dating her, pretty much the day after he had been caught balls-deep in her.

It shook Caroline to her core, to see them walking hand-in-hand together, sipping bubble tea together at the Mystic Grill, laughing together in the park. She couldn't understand how Tyler could just go from being hopelessly in love with Caroline, to suddenly forgetting all about her the next day.

And things just seemed to get worse from there. When Caroline returned to college for her second year, Tyler's new girlfriend was going there too. She was in the room just next door to her and Elena, and the first thing she did was knock on the door heavily, demanding to introduce herself.

Caroline wanted to vomit when she opened the dormitory door, and saw her there in all of her pretty, eastern-European beauty. She was wearing denim shorts and a strappy white tank top, and smiled toothily at Caroline with perfect, even white teeth. When Caroline pointedly ignored the hand that was thrust out, waiting for a greeting, the smile faltered. "I'm Penelope Garza," she introduced kindly – but there was a nasty glint in her eye. "We're studying Micro Biology together. Isn't that great?"

Caroline had promptly shut the door in her face, hoping that Penelope would just fade out, but it only got a whole lot more unbearable.

She had hated Rebekah during High School, but Penelope was a different story. Caroline would have preferred to _kiss _Rebekah right now, rather than deal with Penelope.

Penelope made her first move to latch onto all of Caroline's friends. It was little things at first – like, a party would be hosted, and it would be 'forgotten' to invite Caroline. Or at lunchtime in the canteen, the table would be full, and Caroline would have to sit elsewhere. These things really ground Caroline to the core, but she remained vigilant. That is, until Penelope tried to take Elena from her.

Caroline had been working in the library on a Drama assignment that she wanted to finish before the end of the week. When she finally returned back to the dormitory, tired and ready to have a nice long chat with her best friend, Penelope was there.

Her enemy was sitting on Caroline's bed and sipping hot chocolate like she owned the place. She smiled widely at Caroline when she entered, looking like that cat that had _really _got the cream. She and Elena had been laughing at something, but they had promptly shut up when Caroline entered.

"What's the joke?" she asked, tossing her bag onto the floor by the wardrobe.

"Oh, nothing," Elena replied quickly, before opening up a book that had been lying beside her. Caroline looked over at Penelope, questioningly.

"We were just talking about how funny it is, you know," she licked her lips. "Me being with Tyler, and not you."

Elena looked at Caroline apologetically. "No we weren't—" she was cut off, as Penelope held up a hand. She stood up, and stalked towards Caroline until she was face to face with her.

"Listen, Caroline. I don't like you, and I don't like that you're still around. Don't you get it? _I'm _with Tyler now, _I'm_ having a great college life with all of _my _friends – and you're just pathetic! Why don't you just go and grovel back to Mystic Falls, because no one really likes you here anyway—"

Penelope didn't get to finish what she was saying. As Caroline had stood there in front of her, forced to be undermined by a girl who didn't even know her, and was trying to take _everything _away from her – she couldn't take it anymore. The anger that had been brewing inside her for the weeks that she was forced to watch Penelope prance around Mystic Falls suddenly bubbled over, an uncontrollable, red-hot spillage.

Before Penelope even knew what had happened, Caroline had plunged her fist into her chest, and ripped out her heart.

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><p>Caroline was sat on the toilet seat, wrapped up in a fluffy white towel, while she told Klaus this part of the tale, through the door.<p>

"You _killed _the werewolf-witch?" he questioned, sounding the most serious he had since she arrived in New Orleans.

"You sound surprised."

"Well, I must say Caroline. While I know you to have somewhat of a temper, I've never known you to kill someone just because of a little college rivalry."

Caroline pursed her lips. "It was more than college rivalry. She was trying to take _everything _from me. I couldn't take it anymore."

"You've ended the story again, when I'm sure there is more to be told."

"There is. I will tell you – over lunch," she replied, before shutting the bathroom door properly, so she could dress in peace.

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><p><strong>A.N:<strong> Please R&R :)


	4. Chapter 4 - The French Market

**A.N: **Guys – I have 22 follows of this story so far, and only 5 reviews! Please give a girl a review and spur me on to writing this – I'd really love the motivation!

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><p><em>Chapter Four<em>

After much consideration, Klaus initially decided to take Caroline to the French Market. Everything she saw around her was beautiful; from the multitude of stalls that boasted fruit in all different shades of the rainbow, to the colourful graffiti on the walls. They walked through the sheltered area of the market for a while, and eventually stopped at a flower stall.

Caroline had never seen as many flowers in one place in all of her life. Carnations in shades from the deepest red to the pearliest pink dominated the display, surrounding a mass of bright daffodils, freesias, tulips and perfect scarlet roses. Sunflowers towered above, shrouding the lilac glow of a family of hydrangeas. Caroline breathed in the wonderful smells of the display in front of her, and smiled at the florist behind the stall.

"Is there anything I can help you with, dear?" The aged florist asked, smiling back at Caroline with her crinkled eyes. Caroline was about to shake her head and step away from the stall, but Klaus swooped in. His hand hovered over the display, finally pausing over a particularly pretty pink bunch. The florist tapped her wrinkly finger to a price tag, and Klaus fished in his pocket, handing her over a selection of coins, which she pocketed. Caroline watched, bemused, as Klaus plucked out a single, blush-coloured orchid. He turned to look at her, and she raised her eyebrow.

"What?" she questioned. He simply smiled, and used his free hand to push aside a lock of her hair, before sliding the stem of the orchid into her blonde tresses. She blinked for a moment, wondering how ridiculous she looked. "Seriously?"

Klaus rested his hands on her shoulders, and grinned. "Beautiful. Now let's keep going, we have lunch reservations." He turned, and nodded in thanks at the florist.

"Wonderful couple," she commented, beaming at them both. Caroline felt the heat rising to her cheeks, and she quickly dismissed this. As they carried on walking through the market, Caroline went to pull the flower out of her hair, but Klaus grabbed her arm. She glared at him questioningly.

"I'd like it if you carried on wearing it, Caroline," he told her.

Caroline narrowed her eyes. All she had wanted to do was rip the flower from her hair so that people would stop looking at her, but suddenly she wanted to do nothing but keep the orchid there; so long as Klaus was happy. He dropped her hand, and they carried on walking.

What was happening to her? She couldn't stand Klaus most of the time. She wanted to take the flower out of her hair – why had she suddenly changed her mind? These questions plagued her as she allowed Klaus to lead her through the market. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, that she didn't even notice that they had arrived at a quaint little outdoor restaurant. Klaus pulled out a chair, gesturing for her to sit. Once she had done so, he vanished over to the counter.

When he returned with two tall glasses of something sparkly and dark orange, he wasted no time in getting straight to the point. "I hope you're having a wonderful morning, love, but I still want to know the rest."

"The rest of what?" Caroline replied, shrugging off her cardigan. Klaus stirred the liquid in his glass around with a teaspoon.

"Well, surely you didn't come running to New Orleans just because you fell out with Tyler and killed one girl?"

Caroline sighed, and took a sip of her iced tea. "Fine."

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><p>After she had murdered Penelope with her bare hands, Caroline confessed immediately. She didn't want the secret. The secret made it worse, and harder to deal with. She needed to get it out in the open and out of her head, as soon as she possibly could. So she called Tyler up, telling him that there was an emergency and he needed to come over to Whitmore immediately. He did, reluctantly.<p>

Elena helped Caroline out. They laid Penelope's lifeless body on the coffee table, and wrapped her delicately in a sheet, to hide her lack of a heart. They both hoped that the words would just come when Tyler arrived, but neither of them really knew what to say.

When he arrived at the dormitory, he crumbled at the sight of Penelope. Inwardly, Caroline couldn't understand – Tyler surely hadn't known Penelope for that long. But as he started muttering to Elena, she gathered the rest. It wasn't just a few months that Tyler had been seeing this girl – it had been a lot longer. As in, long before Tyler even knew he was a werewolf.

The dangerous anger rose in Caroline again, and she was forced to swallow it down before she could hurt anyone else. Tyler advanced on her then, demanding to know what had happened to her.

"I killed her," Caroline said quietly. "She was…she was…" she didn't know how to justify her reasons for killing Penelope. Sure, she had been grinding on Caroline's nerves and basically ruining her life – in her head, this all sounded like a perfect reason for murdering someone in cold blood – but now, the words she wanted to say just sounded ridiculous and childish.

Tyler went crazy. He grabbed Caroline by the throat and immediately attempted to bite her, but Elena was quicker than him. She zoomed forward and seized Tyler by the neck, throwing him off Caroline. The two girls advanced on him; wrestled with the hybrid until they had managed to throw him through the glass window. "Run," Elena told Caroline. "I'll hold him off. Run back to Mystic Falls, get Damon—" she was cut off by her own ear piercing scream.

Tyler had jumped back through the window. He was stood in middle of the broken glass, panting heavily. The sight of him was horrifying – his eyes were yellow, and the veins on his muscles were protruding. But there was something else, something stranger than his usual hybrid state.

He seemed bigger than before. His clothes were tearing…fur was spilling through…

"He's half-transformed," Elena whispered. "He isn't fully transforming into a werewolf, just halfway…"

It was sickening to watch. His bones continued to break and snap, and he glared at Caroline with a hateful passion. As he waited for his half-transformation to complete, Caroline could see the pure, evil hatred in his eyes.

He hated her. He wanted to rip her apart and tear out her innards.

The memories of all the happier times that Caroline had with Tyler suddenly came rushing forth, but she could still see this _monster _in front of her eyes. She couldn't cope with it. She couldn't be here, standing in front of someone she loved so much, who wanted nothing more than to rip her spine out. Tears spilled from her eyes, and she wavered.

"You need to run, Caroline. I can hold him back."

"But…" Caroline sobbed. She felt weak. She couldn't do it. Elena looked over at her, seeing the evident pain in her eyes.

There was an easier way.

She could do the thing to avoid her pain, she could escape from it. Elena continued to watch her, her eyebrows furrowing, until she seemed to realise what Caroline was thinking. "No, Caroline – don't! You're better than that – you've always been stronger!"

"I'm sorry, Elena…I just can't…I just _killed _someone for no reason than my own jealousy, and now Tyler wants to murder me!"

"Caroline, no!"

But it was too late. Caroline closed her eyes, searched inside of her, and in the next breath, switched off her humanity.

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><p><span>A.N:<span> PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU'RE ENJOYING THE STORY SO FAR!


	5. Chapter 5 - Bathtime

_Chapter Five_

"As interested as I am in how…_manic_ your summer has been, I still can't work out how you came to be in the dungeon in the Salvatore manor," Klaus stated absent-mindedly. They had finished their lunch at the little outdoor restaurant in the French Market, and they were now enjoying a second iced tea.

"I'm getting to that," Caroline replied. "Look, I've been talking about this since I arrived here. Can't we just…"

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her, smirking.

"No, not that! You're disgusting…"

"You have stranded me at a pivotal cliffhanger in the tale, Caroline. Please tell me that after Tyler turned into a wolf and you killed the witch girl that you managed to switch your humanity back on, and come running to New Orleans to me?" There was a hint of humour in his voice.

Caroline sighed. "No, I wish that was all that happened. But it got a lot worse than that," she paused, looking into her tea. "Like I said; everything just came crumbling down."

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><p>Switching off her humanity at that precise moment proved to be the worst mistake that Caroline had ever made.<p>

Tyler had sped across the room at lightning speed, ripping away the shreds of his t-shirt that remained across his hairy back. He growled primitively, his golden eyes set on Caroline. Within a second, he had pounced.

Elena had hissed and dived on Tyler before he could reach Caroline. She managed to get around the back of him and pull his arms behind him, leaving him open. "Caroline, knock him out with something!" Elena shouted, struggling with the immense strength that Tyler possessed. When he realised he was trapped, he grew angrier. "Caroline, _now_!" she shrieked.

Caroline watched the scene unfolding ahead of her, and realised that she had a choice to make. She could grab something now; dive on Tyler and attempt to stun him – which was unlikely to work, as his transformation was almost complete. She could risk being _bitten,_ or even killed. Or she could flee the scene right that moment, and leave Elena to deal with it. The latter option was harsh, but Caroline felt a sense of blissful ignorance.

So she took the plunge, and fled the scene, right as Tyler sunk his fangs into Elena's neck.

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><p>"I would be surprised, but I know how switching off the humanity affects a vampire," Klaus said, as Caroline took a break. Mentioning the part where she had allowed Elena to be savaged by Tyler had caused her to dissolve into tears. "I can see it's still hard for you to deal with, love."<p>

"It didn't happen that long ago," Caroline sobbed. "I shouldn't even be alive after all of the things I did, after all the things I allowed to happen. I'm a horrible, horrible person."

"Come on," Klaus muttered. He stood up, and pulled Caroline to her feet. "Let's go back to your motel."

"Why?" Caroline asked through hitched breaths, looking up at him suspiciously through her tear-soaked eyelashes.

"So you can change and freshen up. There are other things that we have to do, love."

So Caroline allowed Klaus to pay the bill, and lead them back through the market. On the way back to the motel, Klaus asked Caroline to head back alone, while he 'ran an errand'. Deep down, she didn't really want to walk back alone, but she wasn't going to admit it.

When she got back to her room, she sat down at the dressing table and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Hair falling out, mascara streaks down her cheeks from crying, and her nose and eyes were puffy. After brushing her hair out, she undressed, throwing her clothes on the bed, and headed into the bathroom.

It was blissful to take a long, hot bath. The motel left complementary bubble bath out, so she used the whole bottle, trying to indulge herself. Though, she did have a bit more of a cry while she bathed.

A knock at the bathroom door forced her to sit up suddenly, pulling her knees to her chest. "Caroline, love?"

"I'm fine," she called out. Klaus had silently returned. "I'll be out soon."

"No need," he replied, and the door cracked open. She gasped, and grabbed armfuls of bubbles, pulling them around her to protect her modesty.

"_Klaus_," she tried to hiss, but her voice was still clogged with tears. He stepped into the bathroom, and she noticed that he was holding a takeout cup. As he loomed closer to place the cup on the side of the bath, Caroline inwardly thanked her decision to fill the bathtub to the brim.

"I thought you would like something warm to drink," he said, sitting down on the toilet lid. She kept her knees to her chest, and reached for the cup, taking a grateful sip. Warm, fluid hot chocolate spread through her, and she sighed throatily.

"Thank you," she responded, placing the cup back on the side of the bath.

"We will leave the rest of the story for now, Caroline," Klaus continued. Caroline nodded, staring down at the bubbles. He leaned over and touched her head unexpectedly, causing her to flinch.

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Just relax." Klaus reached for a jug that was placed on the floor beside the tub, and dipped it into the water. When it had filled, he used his free hand to push her head back gently, and comb her hair out with his fingers. He carefully tipped the warm water over her hair, soaking it through. Afterwards, he let the jug float in the bath, and reached for the small shampoo bottle provided by the motel, and poured a measurement onto the palm of his hand. Caroline continued to remain silent, and allowed him to rub the shampoo into her hair, massaging her scalp carefully. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, relaxing into the sensation of having someone else wash her hair.

When her hair was clean, Klaus tactfully left the bathroom, allowing her to get out of the tub and wrap herself in the fluffy bathrobe that was hanging by the door. She wound her blonde hair up in a white towel, and stepped out of the bathroom.

Klaus was sitting on the bed, looking down at his cell phone with an unreadable expression. As Caroline entered, he locked it and shoved it into his pocket, smiling up at her. Caroline looked around, and noticed that he'd folded her clothes into a neat pile on the dresser, and there was a purple boutique bag near the door. "What's that?" she asked, nodding over at the bag, and sitting on the bed beside him.

Klaus stood up, and picked up the bag. He handed it to her, his gaze never leaving her.

She reached into the bag, which appeared full of tissue, until her hand touched something cool and silky.

It was a dress; a beautiful, knee-length dress. It was the deepest purple, made from the smoothest, satin material, with lacy sleeves and an embellished neckline. Caroline spread the dress out on the bed, and leaned back to look at it. "Seriously?"

"What, love?"

"You really have to stop buying me dresses," she replied.

"Well, this one was necessary," he continued. She looked at him questioningly. "I'm taking you back to Mystic Falls, and we're going to the Founder's Ball."

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><p><span>A.N:<span> You know it by now! Please review :)


	6. Chapter 6 - The Road to Mystic Falls

_Chapter Six_

* * *

><p>Caroline was hastily dressing in the bathroom, despite being still damp, as Klaus folded her belongings into the suitcase she had brought with her. "This is…<em>ridiculous<em>, Klaus!" she called through the door. "We _can't _go back there, at least not yet…"

"But you love the Founder's Ball, love."

"Yes, but…"

"I'm guessing that there is more to your summer than just Tyler's indiscretion and your lack of humanity, but as I promised, we're not going to talk about that anymore. Now come on," he ushered, zipping up her suitcase. She stepped out of the bathroom in clean clothes, and picked up the bag that contained her new dress.

"Klaus, _please_. I've only just arrived; do we really have to go back to Mystic Falls _already_?"

"Yes," he replied, and pulled open the door, beckoning for her to leave. She sighed expressively, and stomped out of the door. There was a black car at the front of the motel. "Get in the car, Caroline," he demanded, as he went around to the trunk, and shoved the suitcase in.

"Is this your car? When did you bring a car here?" Caroline asked, opening the passenger door. Klaus slammed the trunk shut, and smiled across at her.

"While you were in the bath – in you get, love."

Caroline rolled her eyes and climbed in, and Klaus got behind the wheel. "As it'll take _hours _to get to Mystic Falls, I suppose you want me to tell you some more of the story."

"I told you I wouldn't ask you anymore today," Klaus replied as he pulled out of the motel driveway, and onto the road.

"Maybe it'll stop you taking us to Mystic Falls," continued Caroline, as she sunk down in her seat and gazed out of the window.

"Caroline," Klaus said sternly. "You happen to be one of those irritating people who just couldn't ever see herself leaving her town and family, so what is with you?"

"Maybe you were right," she muttered, still looking through the window. Klaus looked over at her questioningly, but she didn't turn around. "The small town life, I mean."

Klaus chuckled to himself. "I don't think that's quite right, do you?"

She rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p>When Caroline had fled from the college, she didn't go back to Mystic Falls right away.<p>

For the first time in her life, she felt like she no longer cared about rushing back to alert her friends. She felt no attachment to Mystic Falls, or to Elena or Stefan or Tyler. It was a wonderful sense of relief, not to feel the need to go back there.

However, she couldn't avoid her home town for long. Even in her inhuman splendor, she still had a deep curiosity as to how her friends were coping with Elena's death.

So, after a week spent lurking in a truck stop in Richmond, she headed back to Mystic Falls.

As expected, she wasn't greeted with welcome.

* * *

><p>"To be honest Caroline, I don't know why you even went back. Why on earth didn't you just board a train to New Orleans, and come to me immediately," Klaus interrupted her, a sneer evident in his voice. He would have loved for Caroline to flee to him, like a damsel in distress.<p>

"I had to see the place," Caroline replied. "Elena is so popular; everyone _adores_ her. I just knew that her death would have been an even bigger catastrophe than any of the others, and I was interested to see how they were all coping with it."

"Interested, or you cared?"

Caroline sighed. "I didn't care about anything at that point, Klaus."

* * *

><p>The town was eerily quiet when Caroline arrived. She had headed straight for her house, which was also empty. This was expected however, as her mother would most likely be working. She was tired, and hadn't slept in a proper bed for a week, so she was gratefully looking forward to her bed. Tomorrow, she would find out about Elena.<p>

Only it didn't really go to plan, as when she pushed open her bedroom door, someone else was there.

Damon Salvatore was sitting on her bed, leaning against the headboard with his hands on his lap. "Nice of you to drop by, Blondie," he greeted, his eyes glittering.

Caroline made to dash back through the door, and potentially back out of the town. She could tell by the malevolence in Damon's eyes that he wasn't just saying hello. However Damon, being much older than her, was a lot quicker, and before she could get away he was against the door in front of her. In a flash he had removed a syringe from his pocket, and thrust it right into the middle of her chest, and pressed down.

Vervain.

* * *

><p>"…and then when I woke up in the Salvatore's dungeon," Caroline finished, leaning back in her chair. They were driving along a bleak interstate, and it had become very dark.<p>

"How crafty of him, waiting for you there," Klaus replied, shaking his head.

"I spent the next few weeks stuck in that place, being almost starved of blood, and tortured by Damon. My humanity came back almost immediately, but I'll explain that to you later," she continued, pulling her knees up to her chest. The drive, and the talking, was making her weary. There was a neon sign looming, and Klaus leaned forward to get a better look. It was an inn.

"We'll stop here for the night, and set off early in the morning. We're only about three hours away, so we'll arrive at a reasonable time."

Caroline breathed out with relief. She wasn't ready to get back to Mystic Falls yet, and she was glad the journey was being prolonged. Klaus pulled up, and they stepped out, heading into the inn.

A plump, red-haired woman was rubbing glasses behind the bar. She looked tired, and like she really didn't want to be greeting anyone. "Only one room left," she grunted, not even making the effort to look at either of them. "Attic. Bathroom is communal, on the second floor. You pay thirty-eight dollars just for the room and fifty dollars if you want the continental breakfast in the morning."

Klaus withdrew a leather wallet, and pulled out two twenty dollar bills. "We'll take the thirty-eight dollar option."

The innkeeper shook her chins at Klaus. "You sure? Breakfast is real nice."

"Our tastes are a little more refined."

She shrugged, and reached under the bar, pulling out a sheaf of keys. The one she pulled off and handed to Klaus had a large red card attached to it, labelled 'attic'. "Top floor, first room. If you need anything you use the telephone and dial zero. For ten dollars I'll bring you room service," she turned around after that, reaching up to put back a glass she had been holding. Klaus placed his hand on Caroline's back, and nudged her towards the stairs.

After climbing three flights, they finally reached the room, and it was definitely nothing to shout about.

The room had one small double bed, which filled out most of the room, a bedside table that had a grey kettle and two dirty mugs, and a telephone that hung on the wall. The bedspread had cigarette burns on it, but when Caroline pulled back the covers she was glad to discover that the sheets were white and freshly laundered. "So, where will you be sleeping?" she asked Klaus.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't be ridiculous, Caroline."

"I'm not sleeping in bed with you. You should have booked two rooms…"

"You heard the woman; she only had one room left."

Caroline groaned. "Well, I'll sleep on the floor then!"

Klaus was removing his jacket, and folding onto a small coat peg behind the door. "Stop being so childish, Caroline," he replied, placing his wallet and cell phone on the bedside table.

"It's not me that I'm worried about," she muttered, narrowing her eyes at him.

He smirked at her, and sat down at the foot of the bed, reaching over and grabbing the telephone that hung from the wall. "Are you hungry? I'll order that room service."

Caroline suddenly remembered that she hadn't fed since that morning, when she had drunk half of a blood bag. Something told her that the inn wouldn't have a fridge full of A positive. But she didn't comment anyway, instead choosing to lie back on the bed and stare at the dirty magnolia ceiling.

About ten minutes after Klaus made the call; there was a soft knock at the door. He opened it, and immediately locked eyes with the woman who stood behind it. She was about the same age as Caroline, with soft auburn hair that suggested she was the innkeeper's daughter. She had a moneybag around her waist, and was holding a dusty bottle of Pinot Grigio. "Come in," Klaus told her in a dangerously low voice, and stepped back.

The girl walked in obediently, and Klaus shut the door behind her. He took her face in his hands, gazing into her eyes again. "My friend and I are going to feed on you, and you will remain quiet, do you understand?"

She blinked at him, hazy-eyed. "I will be quiet," she repeated. Klaus smiled at her, and tipped her head to one side. His fangs retracted and he leaned in, biting softly into the side of her neck.

Caroline at the scene ahead of her, in shock. "Klaus! What are you _doing_?" she demanded to know. How could he be so stupid – they were in such a desolate place. Klaus held out his hand to her.

"Come on, Caroline. I know you're hungry."

"I don't feed on people, Klaus."

Klaus pulled his head away from the wound in the girl's neck, and looked at Caroline. The blood around his mouth was a stark contrast to his pale skin. He was smirking, and the blood was on his fangs. She felt a stab of arousal, combined with the urge to rush over and take a bite out of the girl. "Well, I don't think she has any blood bags, Caroline. Relax; we're not going to kill her."

Caroline sighed. She was hungry, and Klaus was right – they probably wouldn't find a blood bag until they reached Mystic Falls, and even then it only depended on if they could get hold of any. "You promise we're not going to kill her?"

"Of course not, love," he replied, turning back to the girl and burying his fangs in her neck. Caroline took his outstretched hand and stepped over to him. The other side of her neck was gaping, the vein throbbing. No longer able to resist the urge, she leaned forwards and took the other side of her neck in her mouth.

* * *

><p>A little while later, they were both sated. The ginger girl had been compelled to forget the incident, and had left the room perfectly fine, if not a little peaky looking.<p>

Caroline had climbed under the covers in the dark, and pulled off her clothes while she was out of view from Klaus. She turned her back to him, hugging the bed sheets around her, ignoring the fact that she could feel Klaus' breath on the back of her neck, and his weight right behind her. They were silent for a while, nothing but the sound of their steady breathing, until Klaus finally spoke.

"You never told me how the others reacted to Elena's final death," he said suddenly, his voice echoing in the cold room.

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows. "Death?" Caroline responded. "She didn't die."


	7. Chapter 7 - Strange Occurrences

A.N: Sorry for the late update, guys, but it's been pretty busy, what with Christmas and all. I hope all my readers had a good holiday season!

* * *

><p>A dull, monotonic bleeping awoke Caroline the next day. She yawned, screwing her eyes up – she expected the usual stream of sunlight to attack her vision, but instead she was welcomed with complete darkness. She opened her eyes, remembering the dingy, lonesome inn room that she had arrived at the night before.<p>

Shortly after the memories flooded back, she became aware of a weight on her waist, and the sound of breath at the nape of her neck.

"Klaus!" she hissed, and struggled out of his grip, sitting up in the bed quickly. She remembered she was in her underwear, and thanked the innkeeper for giving them a room with no window. As she sat up, she felt Klaus' sleeping form fall onto her side of the bed, and saw a fluorescent light from his wrist. His watch, which was the cause of the bleeping, read seven a.m. Caroline reached across through the darkness, and pressed the buttons on the side of his watch.

Klaus' hand snatched her wrist suddenly, and he sat bolt upright. His eyes glowed golden through the darkness, and his fangs glinted ominously as he hissed in her direction. In shock, Caroline found herself hissing back.

"Caroline?" he murmured quietly, as his eyes faded in colour. His hand relaxed on her wrist, and he leaned back in the bed. "Don't sneak up on me like that, love." Caroline rolled her eyes, and stood up, beginning to dress in the dark. "Now explain – what did you mean last night when you said that Elena didn't die?"

"Let's get back on the road, and I'll tell you," Caroline replied breezily, fastening her jeans.

An hour later, and they had bypassed the miserable looking innkeeper, and they were back in Klaus' car. "So, tell away, love," Klaus told her, the moment Caroline had snapped her seatbelt closed.

* * *

><p>When Caroline opened her eyes after being injected with Vervain by Damon Salvatore, she didn't need to guess where she was. Her arms were in shackles, aching heavily, and she felt dirty. She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious for, but she knew that she was starving.<p>

"I see you're awake," Damon's voice sneered from the doorway. She spotted his leering face through the bars on the door. A fringe of dark hair hung in his eyes, and his piercing blue eyes glimmered in the dim light. He was smirking slightly – all features that Caroline once found so attractive – but that seemed like centuriesago. Damon had spent a fraction of her human life causing her misery, despite her being compelled throughout the majority of their so-called relationship. Now it seemed like he was going to spend a little of her vampire life, causing even more misery.

But she held a hard face as Damon swung the door open, and stepped towards her. He was wearing black pants and a tight-fitting black shirt, and he stood with his hands in his pockets. He was trying to intimidate her, but Caroline wasn't afraid of him, not anymore.

But it wouldn't last too long. Caroline's humanity wasn't going to be switched off for much longer.

"What were you thinking, running away and leaving Elena with your creepy hybrid boyfriend, Blondie?"

Caroline glared up at Damon. "I had to get myself out of there," she snapped in response.

"Well, thanks to you – Elena is gone."

"Gone?" Caroline replied. In that one word, she remembered the sight of Tyler, right before he made to rip out her throat. A thousand other memories surfaced – playing with Elena when they were children, picking out dresses for the Spring Fling in their freshman year, and crying over all of the boys they had pined over for years and years to come. Elena was her best friend, and one of her longest friends. They had known each other since they were children – and Caroline had just walked away from her, and left her in that mess?

The emotions flooded back to her, and the pain was horrifyingly evident. She rolled her head back against the brick of the dungeon, and her guilt flowed out in her tears. Elena was dead – and it was all her fault.

Damon was cocking an eyebrow at her, standing with his arms folded across his chest. "I'm surprised, Caroline. I expected a bit more of a fight out of you, but it seems you've switched your humanity back on almost immediately."

Caroline blinked up at her captor through her tear-soaked eyelashes. "Damon, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "Where did you bury her? Can you take me to her grave so I can pay my respects?"

"Erm, no – mainly because she _isn't dead_," he spoke the last two words slowly, as if speaking to a child. Caroline continued to stare up at him, confusion spreading across her face.

* * *

><p>The same confusion was spread across Klaus' face, as he concentrated on the road ahead of him. "Stop leaving me with cliffhangers, Caroline," he muttered, and he didn't sound like he was joking. "I want to know how it is that the doppelgänger isn't dead, when only my blood can cure a werewolf bite. And I know that I didn't return to Mystic Falls to feed my blood to Elena," Klaus continued.<p>

"I almost don't believe the next part myself," replied Caroline.

"Continue," demanded Klaus.

"Damon told me that Elena turned up at Mystic Falls, apparently already struggling with the werewolf venom. Damon made an attempt to contact you straight away, but before he could even get through, something happened."

* * *

><p>"I barely had chance to dial Klaus' cell phone number before they turned up," Damon was telling Caroline. Since her humanity had returned, he had the decency to find her a blood bag and release her hands, but he still kept her locked in the dungeon.<p>

"Before who turned up?" Caroline asked.

"They didn't name themselves, but they turned up in a bunch of white vans, in the middle of the day. They told your mother that they came from a 'Facility', and that they were cleaning up a problem that the authorities claimed was in Mystic Falls."

"Facility? Authority?"

"No one knows. They had a Southern accent, that's all we picked up on."

"But what happened?"

"They swarmed Mystic Falls with gas that was just causing people to drop, left right and centre. People we didn't even know were vampires. Stefan and I tried to get Elena down here so that we would all be safe underground, but they got to her before us. They seemed to have an interest in her condition; they didn't even wait to find any more vampires. They just bundled her up in the van and _shwoop_," Damon made a scuttling motion with his forefinger and thumb. "They were gone."

"So how do you know she's alive?"

"Stefan was tailing them – that's why he's not around. He followed the trucks all the way back to Louisiana. I didn't hear from him for over a week, and then he finally returned. He was all, you know. Serious Stefan face," Damon pulled a mocking, serious expression. "He told me that the facility they spoke of was literally just that – a facility. An enormous, prison-like area, and vampires from all ends of the country had been brought to the facility, and experiments were being performed on them."

"E…experiments?" Caroline stammered. "Like the Augustine Project?"

"No. These are more like social experiments, according to my brother. It's weird, actually. Stefan said he watched the Facility for three days, hoping to catch a glimpse of Elena – and then there she was. She stumbled out of the Facility into a training area one evening with a bunch of other female vamps, looking perfectly fine."

"So these Facility guys…they fixed her condition?"

"Apparently so. There's no way of working out _how _they could have done that – unless they have Klaus locked up in there. But whether they do or don't, these humans have clearly done their homework. They _know _things. Things that _we _possibly don't even know."

"What were they doing to Elena?" Caroline probed.

"Stefan said it was like a training exercise. They made them run, jump, perform all sorts of stupid, arduous tasks. The ones that performed the best seemed to get treats – they were given rations of blood, just enough to feed them and not make them strong enough to overpower the Facility. But the ones who didn't perform well enough were forced to starve."

Caroline relayed all this information in her head, trying to visualise the idea of a huge vampire prison, she couldn't help but wonder the obvious. "But…what are you going to do to me?" she asked, daring to look Damon in the eye. He smirked back at her, but it looked tired – he didn't really seem to be his usual self.

"As much as I want to kill you, I can't. You're the only other vampire other than Stefan and I. So we need all the vamp-power we can get."


	8. Chapter 8 - My Mother's Keeper

A.N: Please R&R guys! Means so much to me! P.S, the Caroline flashbacks will end in this chapter. You may recognise some following parts from the TV show 'True Blood', if you got to the 6th Series of that. I am kind of crossing over some of the events from that show, so if you do recognise some parts – that's why! It's not enough to make it a complete crossover, as there will only be a few reference to some of the characters from True Blood, the main thing is the Facility.

* * *

><p>While Caroline had been spending as long as she could getting ready, and generally postponing the road trip back to Mystic Falls, Klaus had sat in the car for more than an hour, tapping his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. Finally, when she dragged herself down the stairs and prepared to make idle small talk with the young girl that she and Klaus had fed on just the previous night, he beeped the horn particularly loudly, causing both Caroline and the girl to jump.<p>

"Come on!" he shouted through the window, looking irritated. Sighing loudly, Caroline bade goodbye to the innkeeper's daughter, and headed outside.

When she was finally in the car, Klaus started reversing out of the drive before she even had time to get her seatbelt on.

"What's the rush?" she muttered, clipping herself in quickly.

"I need to know more about this Facility," Klaus replied instantly. "I have heard of a factory that matches its description, but it hasn't been in use for several years."

"How do you know about it? What happened there?" Caroline demanded to know.

"It was made by a bunch of crazy Louisiana humans who knew about vampires," Klaus told her. "They made it to study the…characteristics of vampires, how they think and feel; how they act. Things like that. The vampires that escaped called it 'Camp'. I don't know in detail what happened to the place, but the people who ran it ended up in some disastrous mess that caused the whole camp to shut down. So I can only imagine that new anti-vampire humans have taken it over."

Caroline swallowed. "It sounds like a prison."

Klaus looked over at her, as she shrunk in her seat. "Didn't you go and find it with the Salvatore brothers?"

"No," Caroline responded. "We didn't get that far."

* * *

><p>When Stefan came down to the Salvatore dungeon and noticed that Damon still had Caroline strung up, even though her humanity was obviously back, he insisted that she be released straight away. Caroline was full of apologies – more so to Stefan.<p>

"I'm so sorry, Stefan," she cried, feeling her tears emerging at the sight of her friend.

"It's okay," Stefan pulled Caroline into a hug, and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "I know what you went through. All that matters is that Elena is alive and well."

"Yeah, if not trapped in some weird vampire prison a million miles away," Damon interjected with a roll of his eyes.

Stefan shot him a look, and pulled out a blood bag from the back of his jeans. He offered it to Caroline. "Before we do anything, you should go see the sheriff," Stefan continued. "She's been really worried about you," Stefan paused. "She'll be at the hospital."

"Ugh…" Caroline muttered after she had taken a gracious sip of the blood. What could she possibly tell her mother? Maybe she wouldn't ask.

After finishing up her blood and thanking Stefan, she left the Salvatore manor and made her way over to the hospital. As she wandered through the town, she couldn't help but notice how eerily quiet Mystic Falls was. No one wandered the streets. The curtains were drawn in the houses she passed. The only sounds were her feet against the pavement, and the quiet ticking of the county halls giant clock.

She was afraid to see her mother. The last time Caroline spoke to her mother, she was already looking ill, due to her cancer. Caroline was scared of what condition the sheriff would be in now.

When she finally made it to the hospital, the receptionist told Caroline that her mother had been through chemotherapy, and was resting. A nurse came along, and led Caroline through a series of winding white corridors; the smell of antiseptic making her head hurt. Finally, they arrived at a secluded room on a quiet ward, and the nurse asked Caroline to speak quietly.

She sat down on the orange plastic chair beside her mother's bed, and looked on at her sadly. Elizabeth Forbes was lying back on her cushions with tubes coming out of her nose, and a needle in her arm. More tubes led to the bags of fluid hanging from a pole beside her. She was wearing a blue nightgown, and the blankets were pulled up to her chest. But most shockingly, Caroline noticed that her mother's short, blonde hair was now gone – where it used to be was now covered with a patterned scarf, protecting her hairless head.

Caroline felt tears clawing at the back of her throat, but she bit them back. "Mom," she whispered, leaning forwards slightly. Almost immediately, her mother cracked open her eyes, rolling them in Caroline's direction. A smile crept onto her features, and Caroline almost laughed with relief, at how _normal_ she looked, despite being tied up with all the tubes.

"Caroline," Elizabeth croaked, looking over at her daughter. She tried to sit up, but Caroline gently eased her back.

"Stay lying down, Mom, it's okay."

"I don't have long left, Caroline," she replied. Caroline licked her lips carefully, feeling the tears rise again.

"Don't talk like that. I've come to see you."

"No, this is important," she continued. Caroline hushed, and blinked at her sick mother. "I have to talk quickly. Those men…from the Facility. They'll come back. They're coming soon, Caroline."

"How do you know?" Caroline asked quietly, but she dreaded the answer.

"The council have known about their existence for…quite a while. It was decided years ago that vampires would be hoarded up and placed in the Facility for observation. But we didn't expect it to get so out of control…and so inhumane."

"Mom…"

"Please, Caroline. You have to leave Mystic Falls. Don't go looking for the Facility. I'm sure Damon and Stefan will do their best to get Elena out of there…but you have to leave."

Caroline couldn't stop the tears this time. She was suddenly sobbing, feeling hopelessly torn between these two choices. "Mom, I can't. I have to help them. It's _Elena,_" she whimpered.

"Caroline, promise me," her mother whispered. "I couldn't bear it if you got caught there. The experiments they're performing are _derogatory_. Promise me, Caroline."

"Mom…I…"

"Promise me!" her mother suddenly shouted, and flecks of blood flew out of her mouth, splattering Caroline in the face. The heart rate monitor that was strung up to the Elizabeth at the side of her bed had started to bleep erratically, and Caroline knew that her mother was getting worked up.

"I promise," she cried. "I promise, Mom, I promise!"

Elizabeth's heart rate began to slow down, carefully. "I love you, Caroline," she told her daughter.

"I love you too, Mom," Caroline replied. "It's okay. We'll be okay."

"You should go, baby." Elizabeth's heart rate was continuing to drop, and suddenly, the bleeping was sounding overhead. "I love you."

Nurses dashed into the room before Caroline could reply, pushing her out of the way. "You need to leave," one nurse told her quickly. Caroline stood up, feeling tears running down her face. She tried to look over at her mother, but the nurses and doctors were surrounding her bed.

"I love you, Mom!" she called out. "I love you—" she was broken off as a pair of arms suddenly wound their way around her, and started dragging her back out of the room. As she screamed in frustration, angry at whomever it was that was preventing her from saying goodbye to her mother, a voice spoke softly in her ear.

"Calm it, Caroline," it was Stefan. He pushed her down into a chair when they got to the waiting room, and knelt in front of her. "I'm sorry," he told her.

It was too much for Caroline. Was her mother dead? She didn't know. She didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to her properly. The urge to switch off her humanity was rising again, like it had when Tyler had tried to kill her.

Only this time, she knew she was stronger than that. She wasn't a mindless creature. She was still _human_, even if she was undead.

"You have to leave Mystic Falls," Stefan said to her quietly, while Caroline sobbed.

"I…can't. I have to help you get Elena back."

"You promised your mother, Caroline."

"I know."

"It's okay. We'll get Elena back. I _promise _you."

Caroline blinked at Stefan. Elizabeth's wish was for Caroline to get to safety, and never have to witness the horror of the Facility. She desperately wanted to help Elena with Stefan, but she couldn't ignore her mother's dying plea. Caroline lowered her head, feeling hopeless. "But where will I go?" she asked her friend.

Stefan looked thoughtful, and he sat down on a seat beside Caroline. "Get in touch with Klaus. Go to New Orleans. He'll keep you safe, and maybe he knows something about this Facility."

* * *

><p>"And that's when I called you, and came to New Orleans, and so on," Caroline finished. There were tears in her eyes after talking about her mother, and Klaus had tactfully pulled over to the side of the road.<p>

"Come here, love."

"No," Caroline muttered, staring out of the window and biting her lip. She hated crying in front of people, she hated the fact that Klaus was dragging her back to Mystic Falls after she so desperately wanted to abide by her mother's wish, and she hated her mother for dying on her.

Klaus didn't take no for an answer, and he reached over to Caroline, grabbing her by the shoulders and drawing her into his chest. They remained in a quiet, awkward embrace for several minutes, Caroline with the gear stick jabbing her in the stomach, and Klaus unsure how he was supposed to comfort her. Finally, he spoke. "I'm sorry about your mother, Caroline."

Caroline didn't respond to that, continuing to breathe in his scent. A few more minutes passed before she decided to reply. "Do we have to go to Mystic Falls, Klaus?"

Klaus pulled back, allowing Caroline to sit up again. "Yes. We have to get to that Facility, not only for your friend, but for all the other vampires that are trapped in there. Also, I need to know how they are curing werewolf bites, without my blood."

Caroline sighed, turning her attention to the window again. As Klaus pulled back the gearstick and started to rev up the engine again, he spoke again. "Not to mention we're going to do what the Louisiana vampires failed to do before."

"What's that?"

"We're going to burn that bloody place to the ground."


	9. Chapter 9 - Back at Mystic Falls

A.N: Thanks to all of you who reviewed! Please do continue, or risk getting a PM from me begging you to ;)

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><p><em>Chapter Nine<em>

Caroline wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole when Klaus pulled into Mystic Falls. He wasted no time in seeking out the Salvatore Residence, and parking his car up there. He was the first to step out and knock on the door, loudly.

Slowly, Caroline pulled herself out of the car. Stefan had assured her that she could leave Mystic Falls as it was what her mother wanted, but she hadn't seen Damon since she had left the dungeon beforehand. Even though she disliked Damon immensely, both before and after he had trapped her in his basement, she couldn't deny that she was scared of him – even in her vampire state.

He was older than her, and much stronger. Hell, even _Elena _had been stronger than her, and she was turned after Caroline. She sighed as she remembered the incident, in which Elena had overpowered her when she was in a state of no humanity. Why had she never made the effort to learn how to fight, and become stronger? She spent all of her time running around after events and committees, she never thought about the things that were really important.

No one answered the door when Klaus knocked, and even when he tried a second time, there was no answer. Caroline rolled her eyes, and pushed past Klaus, trying the door handle. It clicked open, and she turned back to Klaus, eyebrows raised. "See?"

"Where are your manners, Caroline?"

"No vampires _knock _at Stefan's house. It just doesn't happen," she replied, and shoved the door open fully, letting herself in. Klaus followed.

There was a sudden hissing noise, a flash of fangs, and Caroline suddenly found herself against the wall beside the door frame, with a large hand firmly around her neck. She hissed back at her attacker – who happened to be a very angry Damon, his eyes glowing red, and his fangs protruding wildly. "You ran _away_? I can't believe you could be such a coward!" he bellowed, spit spraying her in the face. Stefan appeared behind Damon, ready to pull him back, but he didn't get there in time.

Klaus dashed towards Damon, and pulled him off Caroline with a ferocious strength. He sped to the other side of the room where Damon had landed, and pinned him to the ground, pressing their foreheads together. "That's no way to greet a lady, is it, Mr Salvatore?"

"Klaus. How nice to see you again," mocked Damon, glaring up at the hybrid.

"Damon, will you please just calm the hell down!" shouted Stefan, but he was watching Caroline. She was rubbing her neck, looking upset, and clearly shaken. "Caroline…I didn't think you would come back. You weren't meant to come back."

She glanced over at Klaus, who was still keeping Damon immobilised. "It turned out that I didn't really have much of a choice," she muttered. Klaus let Damon go roughly, and straightened back up to his feet, then turned and stalked towards Stefan.

"No time for small talk, loves," he announced. "What have you been up to in Caroline's absence?"

* * *

><p>Less than an hour later, the four of them were sat in the Salvatore's living room – all minus Damon, who had chosen to stand morbidly in the corner of the room, alternating dark looks between Caroline and Klaus.<p>

"We only made one more trip to the Facility after Caroline left," Stefan told them. "They had boosted their security since the last time I arrived."

"In what way?" asked Klaus. "What kind of security are we looking at?"

"UV lights, in all angles – which of course makes no difference to us. I have a feeling they haven't quite gotten to grips with how we manage to go out in the daylight, but it might just be a case of weeding out the weak. Not to mention security cameras. Last time I went, I counted about four guards in the watchtowers that surrounded the Facility, but this time there were more than fifteen. All equipped with crossbows and stakes, guns with wooden bullets. No doubt they will be laced with vervain, so it will be impossible to compel guards."

"Do you know who is running the show, here?"

"Not really. But on the third day we were watching the Facility, a black car pulled up. The man inside it looked important, wearing a business suit. He was Hispanic, by the looks of things. Tall, bald. I think his assistant called him Mr Garza."

Caroline looked up suddenly, locking eyes with Stefan. "Garza?"

"Does that mean something to you?" Stefan asked. In the corner of the room, Damon smirked.

"I…I don't…" she continued, feeling panic rising in her throat. It couldn't be. Surely not.

"Yes it does, doesn't it, Blondie?" Damon sneered, and stepped out of the corner of the room. He threw himself into the seat besides Stefan, continuing to leer across at Caroline. "Garza was the surname of another particular someone. Someone who ended up with our friend Tyler."

"Oh, no," Caroline murmured. It was connecting in her head.

"Someone - who Caroline here _murdered._ What was her name again, Blondie?" Damon leaned forward, his bright blue eyes glimmering maliciously. "Penelope?"

Caroline sat back in her seat. "It must be a coincidence. Garza is a popular name."

"Or…" Klaus began, clasping his hands together. "This Garza bloke sent this Penelope to Mystic Falls to scope out the vampire situation before they actually jumped in and started trying to uproot you."

"It's possible," Stefan continued, looking thoughtful.

"But none of that is relevant anymore, because he's probably raging angry now that our own little neurotic-bitch vampire slayed his daughter," Damon chuntered under his breath. "He's probably ripping Elena apart limb from limb, as we speak – for revenge."

"Will you just _shut up_!" screeched Caroline suddenly. She flew out of her seat, aiming towards the sneering; smirking older Salvatore – but she didn't reach him in time. Klaus had clenched a firm hand around her wrist, preventing her from diving on Damon.

"Calm down, love."

"Let me go. I'm going to kill him," she hissed, shooting her crimson glare at Klaus. He didn't answer, simply yanked her back into a sitting position.

"I think we all just need to calm down," Stefan said quietly, looking around at everyone. His gaze lasted longer on Damon. "We all have the same ultimate goal here. We all want to get into that Facility for some reason or another, and arguing about things now isn't going to make the process any easier."

Caroline nodded. Reluctantly, Damon nodded too, but he rolled his eyes.

"Well, we are assuming that you are going to allow Caroline and myself to stay here, as this is probably the safest home in the town," Klaus said to Stefan. "So I suppose you'd like to show us to our rooms?"

"Great," Damon muttered. He stood up and headed over to the small table, which displayed several crystal decanters that were filled with whiskey. "I'll let you show our most _humble _guests to their rooms, little brother."

* * *

><p>Klaus didn't really want to rest, even in the comfortable room that Stefan had showed him to. The irrational part of him wanted to rush straight out to the Facility, and start tearing the place apart. He needed to know how they were curing werewolf bites. He needed to know just <em>what <em>they were doing to vampires in there, and what their motives were. Thinking about this elusive place made him clench his fists angrily, despising the fact that there was something that he didn't know about.

There was no way he would be able to sleep. Even though it was late now, and they would be up exceptionally early to travel to the Louisiana, he couldn't bring himself to lie down and try to sleep. Instead he stood up and walked quietly out of the bedroom, not bothering to cover his top half.

He trod carefully along the corridor, until he found the room that Stefan had previously shown Caroline to. He raised his hand to knock, but then remembered what Caroline had told him earlier.

"_No vampires _knock_ at Stefan's house."_

He grinned, and pushed the door open.

Caroline was sitting on the window ledge in a t-shirt that clearly didn't belong to her, as it came down to her thighs. She was staring out of the window; the moonlight shining on her limbs and making them look milky white. "You shouldn't come into a girl's bedroom, Klaus," she muttered without looking at him. "I thought you liked good manners."

Klaus shut the door behind him, and walked over to Caroline, standing at the window beside her. "I don't think manners really apply at this house – especially not good manners."

Caroline hung her head, trying to hide the smile that was creeping up on her face, but Klaus didn't miss it. He reached out and took her chin in his hand, tilting her head to face him. "What's the matter, love?"

She shook her head out of his hand. "Go back to your room," when Klaus simply stared at her, one eyebrow raised, she sighed. "I just can't take all this _drama_," she muttered.

"But Caroline, I thought you were a self-confessed Drama _Queen_."

"It's just…Elena being killed…and then Elena _not _being dead…and now this Facility, and Penelope…and Damon just being a _complete jackass_," she spat the last two words, and stared back out of the window. "Every time one drama ends, another one seems to just come out of nowhere," her voice cracked at the end, and tears began to spill from her eyes.

Klaus stepped closer to her, and pulled the young vampire into his embrace. He expected her to pull away, make a stupid remark, or try and get him to leave, but she didn't. She continued to cry, and allowed herself to bury her face into Klaus' skin, while he reached around and stroked the back of her head softly.


	10. Chapter 10 - On The Road (Again)

_Chapter Ten_

When Caroline cracked her eyes open the next morning, the first thing she thought was about how _warm _she was. The sunlight was streaming through the window, sending heat through her veins, and she was in a comfortable bed.

"Well, you two certainly look…," a leering voice came from the doorway. Caroline bolted into an upright position, and saw that Damon was leaning against the doorframe. "…Cosy." He waggled his eyebrows at her smarmily. Caroline blinked at him momentarily, and then looked down beside her. Klaus was asleep in the bed, his arm outstretched into the place that Caroline had just been. He was still shirtless. She felt herself flushing, as she forced herself to look back at Damon. "Stefan has breakfast. He's feeling particularly hospitable this morning. I hope you like A negative."

Caroline carefully climbed out of the bed, wondering how she had managed to fall asleep allowing Klaus to stay in her bedroom, much less her _bed_. She pulled her jeans on quickly. "I prefer A positive."

"Well unfortunately, Barbie, you get what you're given around these parts," Damon muttered, and began to walk away from the bedroom. Caroline rolled her eyes and rushed after him, leaving the sleeping Klaus behind. When the door was shut and they were walking side by side through the Salvatore Manor, Damon spoke again. "So, I'm well aware that you had Klaus wrapped around your pinkie finger while he was living here, but I never knew you were so _close_."

"We're not," Caroline hissed. "We're just…"

"Sleeping together, enjoying the pleasure of each other's company," Damon mocked. "See, we all knew that he was _obsessed _with you, but I didn't really think you would go running into his safe, Original arms."

"Shut up, Damon," Caroline muttered, as they finally reached the kitchen area. Stefan was sat at the breakfast bar, fully dressed. There was a large shoulder bag on top of the bar, beside a pile of blood bags. Stefan took one, and threw it at Caroline, which she caught deftly.

"Where is Klaus?"

"Right here," a familiar British voice came from behind Caroline. Klaus stalked into the kitchen, and took one of the blood bags from the bar. He too, was fully dressed and looked as though he hadn't been sleeping for the last seven hours. Caroline inwardly cursed her female form, and the fact that Damon would almost definitely not allow her to flat iron her hair before they left on their trip. She sipped the blood from the bag, trying her best not to make eye contact with Klaus.

"Drink up and lets go, Loverboy," Damon muttered as he passed Klaus towards the door.

Klaus seemed not to hear Damon's new nickname for him, but Caroline felt heat rushing to her cheeks, and she let her hair hang over her face while she continued to sip her blood. "How are we travelling to Louisiana? I presume that Caroline and I will follow you in the car?"

Stefan shook his head. "No. Very bad idea. Two cars will draw attention. We'll all travel together."

"Surely any number of cars will draw attention," replied Klaus.

"Yes, but we need to get there somehow. We travel in one car, park up about ten miles away from the Facility, and then we travel on foot from there."

Klaus looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Ugh, really, brother?" Damon had just opened the front door, and was swinging a set of car keys on his finger. "Do you really want to drive the eight-hundred mile journey from Virginia to Louisiana with _these two _making out on the backseat of your SUV? That's ten hours of making out, Stefan."

Stefan remained silent, but he cocked an eyebrow in Caroline's direction. Klaus, however, was staring Damon out. "Careful," he stated, in a dangerous tone.

"Whatever," Damon responded, and he caught the keys he'd been swinging around his fingertip. "I'm driving. Let's _go_."

* * *

><p>Two hours later, and they were on the road. Caroline was sat in the backseat, with her forehead pressed against the window, watching the roads rolling by.<p>

She was sick of being 'on the road'. It was only yesterday that she had arrived with Klaus, after a car journey that would take so long. She had barely had a chance to breathe fresh air – and all she could think about was that she was doing exactly what she had promised her mother she wouldn't do – she was heading for the facility.

Klaus looked over at Caroline, when she sighed loudly. "Don't worry, Caroline," he said quietly. "I won't let you be taken by the Facility."

Caroline didn't reply, but she could practically hear the sneering judgement radiating from Damon. He was smirking at the road ahead of him, so she knew he was eavesdropping. Instead, she glared at him through the rear view mirror. "Has anyone even decided what we're going to _do _when we reach this Facility place? I mean, seriously – you spent an hour telling us how heavy the security is. Who's to say it hasn't gotten worse since you were there last? We're just going to barge up there with no plan?"

"Unfortunately, our plans never seem to go to plan, Blondie," Damon muttered.

"We'll arrive in the night," Stefan spoke over Damon. "So we'll sneak around, scope out any new security. The best thing we can do is to wait for someone who works there to arrive, try and hijack them, and infiltrate the Facility that way."

"It sounds like a stupid idea," Caroline replied.

"It seems like it's our only option, love," said Klaus. They all silenced on his final note, allowing the four of them to continue their journey in silence.

* * *

><p>It was well into the night when Damon finally pulled the car over. None of them had spoken in hours, apart from the few occasional statements here and there. The last town they had passed was Abbeville, and it was miles away now. When there had ceased to be streetlights, Caroline assumed they were nearly there.<p>

Damon parked the car under a shelter of trees, and switched off the engine. "Let's hope we can remember where we parked this thing," he chided, and then stepped out. Stefan opened his door, and both Klaus and Caroline climbed out of the car, too.

Immediately, Caroline plunged her foot into something deep and soft. She shrieked loudly, and Stefan instantly dashed over to her, clapping a hand over her mouth. When she looked down at the ground, she noticed that she was ankle-deep in sludge. "You pulled the car over in a _swamp_?" she hissed at Damon. He was standing on a cobblestone path beside the car, which Caroline hobbled over to, quickly.

"Well, this side of the car is pretty dry."

"You did that on purpose," Caroline groaned, shaking her feet. "These are my favourite shoes!"

"Get over it," Damon replied with a roll of his eyes.

Klaus sidestepped the argument between Damon and Caroline, towards Stefan. "So Stefan, where is this Facility?"

Stefan gestured in a wild direction, south of where they stood. "We're at the foot of the Vermillion Bay, on Marsh Island. It's mainly a swamp - If we keep travelling that way, we'll get to the coast. And then, there is a tiny island, about two miles into the sea. It is believed by the general public to be just another swamp island, but…"

"…but it's actually the Facility," Klaus continued. "Clever little humans, building their impenetrable fortress on an island."

"It's like Alcatraz," added Caroline.

"How do we travel to this island?" asked Klaus.

"There's a tunnel that goes under the sea. That's where we should stop and try to catch someone on their way in. We used the tunnel before to get onto the island, but I imagine the security would have stepped up by now. It's probably not as easy to just walk through the tunnel."

"So what are we waiting for?" Klaus declared. "Let's end this now."


	11. Chapter 11 - The Death of Daisy King

_Chapter Eleven_

The four of them had taken refuge at the opening of the tunnel that led onto the island that held the Facility. It was a strange, yet obvious opening – a large, sloping hole, big enough to fit a van through it, and it was built into the ground, starting about half a mile away from the actual coast. There was what only could be described as a hasty disguise over the tunnels entrance. It was like an enormous wooden door, only mould and grass was growing over the top of it. Caroline would have walked straight past it, if Stefan hadn't told them that it was the entrance into the tunnel.

They cowered in the dark about a hundred metres away, under a shelter of trees.

"Now what?" Caroline asked.

Stefan replied in hushed tones. "Now we wait. Eventually, someone will head into there. The first person who looks vulnerable, we pounce."

Caroline squinted over the lip of the tunnel, over to where the marsh met the ocean. Straight ahead in the sea, through the dark and the mist, there was a series of bright, white lights. Even though Caroline couldn't make out the actual building, she figured that it was the Facility.

"We will probably have to wait until morning," Stefan continued. "I doubt that anyone will show up at this time."

"Ugh," Caroline muttered, and threw herself down into the grass. She was beginning to regret allowing them to drag her along more and more, as the mission went on.

* * *

><p>It was the muttering of voices that woke Caroline up several hours later, but she kept her eyes closed.<p>

"…maybe you should let her cuddle up to you, Klaus. She looks cold," Damon was saying.

"Be quiet," Klaus replied. "You'll wake her."

"Oh, alright. You love her, we _get _it."

"Damon," Stefan's dull tone spoke over his brother. "Shut up. I think I hear something."

Caroline cracked her eyes open, and looked around at her fellow vampires. Klaus was standing with his back to all of them, his arms crossed. He was looking out to the sea. In the daylight, the Facility was much more visible.

It was a great white building, made from what looked to be huge cylinders, with an iron-wrought roof. There didn't appear to be any windows on the building, but the four watchtowers either side of the building looked ominous enough. "It's going to be impossible," Klaus muttered. "There is no way we'll be able to get into that place without being caught."

"So we kill them all," Damon told him. "Every last one of them, and then we get Elena back."

"Which is all fantastic, Damon – except it is definite that each one of those humans will be filled with vervain," Klaus replied.

Damon smirked at Klaus' back. "Well, in that case, I'll let you have first bite."

Caroline stood up from her sleeping area, and dusted herself off. Stefan was facing the trees, opposite to the tunnel opening, and was focusing on something. She wandered over to him, and tried to listen to whatever it was he could hear.

It was a car, and the silence within it implied there was only one person in it. It was coming closer, the engine whirring louder. The road that led to the tunnel wasn't a proper road, just a dirt trail that was specifically designed to lead people to the Facility. The tunnel was so deep out in the swamp, there was little to no chance of anyone coming this way unless they were heading into the Facility.

Stefan ducked back behind the trees, and Caroline did the same, on the other side of the road. Damon followed Stefan, and Klaus crossed over to where Caroline stood.

As the car drew closer, Klaus pulled Caroline back, further into the shadows, and bent his head towards her ear. "There's a woman in that car," he whispered, his voice barely a breath, directly into her ear. Caroline didn't reply, allowing him to continue. "Damon and Stefan are probably going to suggest that you take her place and venture in the facility."

"How do you know it's a woman?" Caroline hissed back, trying to keep her voice as low as his. Across the road, Damon and Stefan were focusing on the oncoming car, and seemed unable to hear her.

"I've been around a long time, sweetheart," breathed Klaus. "My hearing has had time to adapt a lot more than yours, and the Salvatore's. I can her humming to something."

"Well, I'll do it," murmured Caroline. "If it means saving Elena, and whoever else is trapped in there." She heard Klaus' breath hitch behind her.

"Not going to happen, love," he responded. "You are not going inside that place on your own."

Before Caroline could reply, Klaus had yanked her back further. The car had finally passed them – it was a little, light blue affair, with a perky blonde woman sitting in the front seat. She pulled the car up beside the tunnel, and stalled the engine. Across the road, Stefan made eye contact with them, and held up his finger.

As soon as the car door cracked open, and a high-heeled foot stepped out of it, Damon had rushed over in a mad, dark dash. In seconds, he had grabbed the woman by the throat, and snapped her neck in an instant.

The rest of the vampires crept out of the shadows, heading over to where Damon was stood. "I told you not to kill her!" Stefan hissed, kneeling down beside the form of the (now dead) woman. She was a little overweight, with platinum highlights in her hair, and dressed in a white lab coat. There was a lanyard around her neck, holding some identification. Caroline reached out, and plucked it from her neck.

"Her name is Daisy King. She's a psychologist from the University in Boston," Caroline told them.

"Massachusetts? Well that's not a long way to come at all," Damon added.

"Why do you think she was coming here?" Caroline asked.

"We'll never know, now," Stefan muttered.

"Not unless one of us goes in there, anyway," Damon was staring pointedly at Caroline.

Klaus seemed to pick up on what Damon was thinking, and he stepped over to the three of them, grabbing Caroline by the arm. "It's not going to happen."

"Now isn't the time to get all _protective _of your new girlfriend, Klaus," groaned Damon. "The woman is a _girl_. A girl called Daisy, I might add. Now, unless you want to go on there and pretend you're a little Daisy Duke from Massachusetts, be my guest. But somehow, I don't think you'll get away with it. Though, Barbie here," Damon gestured towards Caroline. "She'll do fine."

"I'm not his girlfr—"

"—It's not going to happen," Klaus repeated, cutting Caroline off mid-sentence. He stood in front of Caroline, causing her to roll her eyes theatrically.

"I'll do it, Klaus," she told him adamantly.

Klaus groaned loudly, and gestured his hands. "Well in that case, I'll go in with you."

"That's a ridiculous idea," cut in Stefan. "It's likely that _some _vampire or even a human inside that place is likely to know you."

"Yeah, being the cuckoo hybrid _freakshow_, and all," interjected Damon.

"Careful," muttered Klaus.

"Fine," Damon replied, with a roll of his eyes. "I'll escort Blondie into the Facility, and then we'll send you a signal to let you know when it's safe to come in. Now let's go. _Tout de suite_." He began to unbutton the woman's white coat.

"I don't like this," Klaus muttered, placing his hands on Caroline's shoulders. She shrugged them away, quickly.

"Why are you acting like this, Klaus?" she asked him. "I don't _need_ protecting! I have to do this. For my friend."

"Let's _go_," Damon shouted again. He threw the white coat at Caroline, and it hit her directly in the face. She sighed, and proceeded to fasten it up over her clothes. After placing the lanyard with Daisy Kings identity stamped on t, she stepped into the driver's seat of the car, and Damon crossed over to the passenger side.

Klaus watched, looking extremely unimpressed as Caroline began to drive through the tunnel. As soon as Stefan threw the wooden door over the tunnel, Klaus turned around, and violently threw his fist into the centre of a nearby tree.


	12. Chapter 12 - Facility Bait

_Chapter Twelve_

As Caroline ploughed the car through the dark tunnel, she couldn't focus her mind on the Facility. Damon, who had been sitting in silence beside her, seemed to pick up on her negative vibes. "Talk to me, Blondie."

"No," Caroline muttered, squinting in the darkness.

"Oh, come on. This might be the last conversation you have in your life. We might go in there and _die_."

"Just shut up," Caroline hissed.

"What's wrong with you?" Damon nudged her in the waist, causing her to flinch. "What are you thinking about?"

Caroline sighed. He was right – this _might _be the last conversation she had, morbid as that was to think about. They didn't know who, or what would be inside the Facility. She was wildly driving into a death trap, in order to save her best friend, but somehow, she couldn't help but think about something else.

"Klaus told me that he was bringing me back to Mystic Falls so that we could go to the Founder's Ball," Caroline told him, sounding slightly upset. "He bought me a dress. But then, when I told him about all this Facility stuff he just seemed to shut down. I guess I did really want to go to the party."

"The Founder's Ball isn't for three days, Caroline. We still have time," Damon replied. "But you're right. Our hybrid pal has been acting out of character. He's hardly said two words to every annoying thing I've said."

Now it was Caroline's time to raise her eyebrows. "Maybe everyone is just so used to hearing your snarky commentary on everything that no one actually cares anymore."

"Mm-hmm," finalised Damon, and they spent the rest of the journey in silence.

As the tunnel began to rise in an uphill slope, Caroline assumed they would be coming to the end of it, soon enough. The closer they arrived to the Facility, the more she was beginning to wish that she had allowed Klaus to insist that she wasn't to venture inside. She desperately wanted to save Elena, and her curious nature was determined to get a glimpse inside this mysterious place – but on the other hand, she didn't want to die. She really, _really,_ didn't want to die.

It had irritated her that Klaus had acted so protectively in her defense, but now she felt bad for snapping at him. As much as he was Klaus; evil, vindictive, psychopathic hybrid Klaus – he still cared for her. As much as Caroline sometimes wished he would pick someone else to dote on, she couldn't deny…

Sometimes, she secretly enjoyed it.

She shook these thoughts out of her head, as she began to pull the car out of the other side of the tunnel. "This is it," she murmured to Damon. "We're here."

* * *

><p>As they returned into the sunlight, they headed straight for a set of huge, electrical gates, which led into the courtyard of the Facility. There was a cabin beside the gate, and a man dressed in a smart, grey uniform was perched at the window. Caroline slowed the car right down next to the cabin, and the man glared at her through his dark sunglasses. "Name?"<p>

"Caro—I mean, Daisy. Daisy King," Caroline stated. She cursed herself inwardly. She always had been a terrible liar.

"Can I see your identification?" the guard asked. Caroline tugged the lanyard from her neck, and handed it to the guard. He looked at it for some time, and his eyes flickered between the lanyard and Caroline. Eventually, he seemed happy enough that both the woman in the image and Caroline were blue-eyed and blonde, and he handed the lanyard back. "Thank you, Doctor King," he finally acknowledged, but then he turned his attention to Damon, who had been quiet until now. "And…who are you?"

"Oh! I'm…"

"This is…" Caroline spoke at the same time as Damon.

"…Cedric," Damon finished, but he looked unsure. "Cedric King. I am Daisy's…"

"…he's my husband," Caroline finished.

"…That's right," Damon snatched Caroline's hand, and held it up, entwined with his. "See?"

The guard leaned forward, a smile growing on his face. "Interesting set of rings you got there," he commented, nodding at their daylight rings. Caroline tore her hand away from Damon's, and smiled falsely at the guard. "Go on in, then. You'll be greeted by another guard."

In the next minute, the electric gates began to wind back into the walls, and Caroline pulled up the window and put her foot down. "Cedric?" she hissed, when they were out of earshot of the guard. "Seriously?"

"Well, he put me on the spot."

Caroline groaned, and pulled the car up beside another guard, who stood in the middle of a vast and empty space, wearing the same grey uniform and sunglasses combination. He held up a gloved hand, and Caroline halted the car. He made a gesturing movement with his hand, and Caroline unbuckled her seatbelt. "I think I have an idea," she said to Damon, in a low voice.

"Go on," he muttered.

"I don't think we're going to get through here easily. Not to mention _you _don't have an alibi as good as I do. No ID, and you can't even come up with a decent story."

"What could be better than being married to _me_?"

Caroline ignored his comment. "Just see me to the door, and then leave. Go back to Klaus and Stefan. Wait for a signal." The guard was still beckoning his hand, beginning to look impatient.

"What _signal_?" Damon persisted.

"I don't know yet," hissed Caroline.

Damon looked up at the huge, cylindrical building in front of them both. Just as the guard began to walk closer to the car, he had an idea.

"Cut out the electricity," he said suddenly.

"_What_?"

"Find the source of the electricity and _cut it out_," the guard was almost at the car. "Do it at night, and we'll all be watching. We'll dive in while it's pitch black, and while the gates aren't working and do whatever we need to do. Until then, just act like this Daisy," Damon flicked her lanyard, just as the guard rapped his knuckles on the windscreen.

Caroline opened the car door, and stepped out. Damon did the same, but swapped over the driver's seat.

"Where do you think you're going?" the guard asked in a low voice.

"Oh, I'm just seeing her off," Damon replied dramatically. "As she's going to be here a while."

The guard looked between Damon and Caroline. "Then, you should have waited at the gates," he looked over to the gates, where the guard behind them would be sitting in his cabin. "John shouldn't have let you through."

Damon shrugged. "No harm done. I'll just be on my way," he opened the driver's door again, and slid into it before the guard could protest. "Goodbye, Sweetness," he added to Caroline mockingly, and she managed to withhold rolling her eyes. Damon revved up the engine and reversed, not giving the guard a chance to stop him.

The guard held out an arm to Caroline, and gestured for him to follow. "Right this way, Doctor King."

* * *

><p>Klaus was staring emptily out into the ocean, when Damon returned in the little blue car. Without thinking, he immediately dashed over, pulling the older Salvatore brother out of the seat, and slamming him against the bonnet.<p>

"Where is she?" he roared viciously, spraying spit into his face. Stefan bolted over, but Klaus reached out with one hand and grabbed hold of him by the throat before he could react. "_Where is she_?" he repeated angrily.

"She told me to leave her there," Damon hissed back.

"And you just left her there?" Stefan interjected. "Seriously, Damon?"

"Let go of me and I'll explain!"

Reluctantly, Klaus released Damon. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip your heart out, right now."

"It wasn't possible for me to go inside with her. The security was too controlling – they would have sussed me out immediately," Damon replied. "She's going to set up a signal. Tonight. We can get inside tonight."

"I don't think so, boys," a female voice came from behind them. The three vampires spun around on their heels, and bore their fangs at the intruder. It was a woman, with her blonde hair scraped up on top of her head, wearing sunglasses. She was wearing the same grey uniform as the guards at the Facility, but she was holding a huge, wide barrelled gun. She pulled the trigger in their general direction, but when instead of releasing a bullet, a stream of gas poured out of the tip.

It consumed the three men, and they began to cough and choke on the gas. "Vervain," yelled Stefan, but it was too late. Within a few minutes, they all collapsed to their knees, as the vervain gas streamed down their throats.


	13. Chapter 13 - The Grand Tour

_Chapter Thirteen_

When Caroline was shown through a set of great, iron doors, she was passed onto a reception area, where she was told to wait. Seconds after the guard vanished back into the courtyard, she was greeted by an overly tanned, overly blonde woman, wearing very pink lipstick and too much eyeshadow. "Welcome!" she spoke in a heavy, Southern voice, and was wearing a white lab coat similar to the one that Caroline had on. "Nice to meet you, Doctor King!"

"Please," Caroline said. "Call me Daisy."

The blonde woman grinned wider, showing a row of pearly white teeth. "Great! Well, my name is Willow Mae. You can just call me Willow! We'll have to run a few tests on you of course, but first I'll show you around."

"Tests?"

"Oh, you know. Blood tests, water tests, general sensory tests. It's a tough job, working around vampires. Now quick, quick, let's show you around!"

Caroline's stomach flipped at the thought of tests. Tests would show that she was in fact dead, and then what would happen? She bit her lip, but realised there was nothing she could do at this moment in time. She only hoped that the grand tour would drag out for a while.

* * *

><p>"…and this is the main courtyard, where the vampires are given time to exercise during the night," Willow was saying. She had brought Caroline to an iron balcony at the top of one of the cylindrical buildings, which overlooked a huge outside area. The courtyard was surrounded by enormous, wire-bound fences, and covered with a roof made from the same sharp, dangerous looking wire. The courtyard was a large, circular affair, which ran fully around the cylindrical building that they stood atop, but there was fences running down the middle. "We have the females on that side, and the males on the other. They do not like the separation."<p>

"What about the fences?" Caroline asked. As dangerous as the wire looked, it would be no fuss for a vampire to rip through them.

"Electric, and soaked with vervain. If a vampire so much as brushes past one of those fences, they'll get a very nasty burn, along with an electric shock. Moving on," Willow ticked something from her clipboard, and led them inside. They travelled along a long, bright white corridor, until they reached a wide, circular area, with three doors across it. Willow led Caroline to the left one, and when she opened it, there was a bridge, with another fence made from the electric, vervain-soaked wire. They stepped onto the bridge, and below it was another wide, white, windowless room.

There was what looked like filing cabinets all across one wall, and various seats and tables scattered across it. There were magazines and board games everywhere, but most of them looked untouched. Across all the mismatched furniture were about twenty female vampires, all wearing light blue outfits, consisting of a short sleeved blouse and linen pants. Each of them had a number on the left breast of their shirts, between one and four.

"This is General Population Two," Willow said. The vampires all stared up at Caroline and Willow, and as she scanned the faces, she saw Elena immediately. She was gaping up at Caroline, looking confused. "This is where we keep all of the female vampires. General Population One holds all the male vampires, and looks virtually the same as this. Any questions?"

"What are the cabinets for?" Caroline asked, gesturing over to the weird, iron filing cabinets. "Also, what are the numbers for?"

Willow smiled, once again baring her icy teeth. "The cabinets aren't cabinets, hon. That's where the vampires sleep. They pull out of the wall and have a coffin-like interior. Quite fitting, really."

Caroline pursed her lips. "And the numbers?"

"That's something we adopted from our predecessors. When a vampire is admitted to the Facility, we put them through a generic test, in a group of four. It's simple. When there are four vampires, three ping pong balls are shot into the testing area. The three vampires that catch the balls win, and the one who doesn't catch a ball is labelled with a number four, and leaves the test. Then there are three vampires remaining, and we shoot out two balls. The loser leaves, and becomes number three. Then there are two remaining, and we shoot out one ball. You get the idea. Whoever is left standing, having caught a ball every time, is number one. It's the easiest way to root out the weak from the strong. The older ones are usually better." Caroline looked over at Elena, and saw that she had her arms folded over a number two on her chest. "Are you ready to move on?"

Caroline nodded. She had seen enough of the imprisonment that they were suffering. When they stepped out into the hallway, Caroline noticed that the words 'Gen Pop 1' and 'Gen Pop 2' were printed on either of the opposite doors. Caroline pointed to the door ahead of her. "What's in there?"

"That's Solitary Confinement. We keep…particularly interesting vampires in there. Ones that need a little more testing."

Caroline felt sick. She couldn't comment on the treatment of the vampires here – it was like they were hoarding them up. Like animals.

"I'll show you to your office, and then tomorrow you can come and see the testing facilities," Willow said, looking at her watch. "Looks like we're running out of time. I had a call earlier saying we had a new batch coming in. This way…"

She followed Willow down another series of corridors, until they reached a different building altogether. This one was mainly offices, but the great, circular building in the middle suggested that it was the testing area. Willow led Caroline to a plush office, complete with a wooden desk, computer, and a lounge seat in the middle of the room. "This is where you'll see your patients."

"My…patients?" Caroline looked confused.

"Of course," Willow crinkled her brow at Caroline. "Didn't you discuss this over e-mail with Professor Garza? You'll be seeing the vampires who are at levels one and two. And, you'll definitely see the vampires who get placed into Solitary. It'll be your duty to get right into their brains, Daisy. To find out how they think, feel, what makes them act the way they do," Willow bore her teeth at Caroline, and took another look at her watch. "Ooops, I'm running out of time. I'll leave you to get acquainted with your office," Willow turned around, and headed back towards the door, but she appeared to remember something as she was about to leave. "Oh! Tests!"

Caroline's heart almost stopped, but Willow clicked her teeth, and took another look at her watch. "Never mind. We'll see to it tomorrow. Have a good afternoon!" she called, as she pulled the door shut behind her. Caroline almost sank with relief. She had escaped the blood tests for today, and that gave her extra time to try and get Klaus, Stefan and Damon in here as soon as possible.

She sat down on the lounge chair for a moment. All of a sudden, it seemed to hit her.

She had actually _got in_. She'd done something right. She managed not to screw it up. She was _inside_. Caroline almost felt like laughing, but she had other things to do. It was afternoon now, so there weren't many hours until nightfall, and she needed to find the source of the electricity before then. So she stepped out of the office, and headed down the corridor.

* * *

><p>When Klaus opened his eyes the next time, everything was bright and white. He groaned, quickly remembering the recent events. They had been caught, before they even managed to get in.<p>

He was in a vast, circular wall. There were three other vampires stood around him, all in the same groggy state of just-waking. Immediately, Klaus noticed an opening in the far wall, above a huge, rectangular mirror. It was quite obvious that the mirror was quite obviously a two-way window. He was positive that there would be a group of people behind there, watching.

The other vampires consisted of two women, and one other man. The man was neither Stefan nor Damon, but Klaus didn't really care. One of the women was dark skinned, with narrow eyes staring directly at the mirror, and the other one was obviously a new vampire. She was too jittery, her eyes spiralling wildly around the room.

"What is this?" shouted the young vampire, looking up at the ceiling, probably for a security camera.

"This is the Facility, love," Klaus replied. He continued to glare straight at the mirror. "And I imagine that this is one of their little tests."

As soon as Klaus finished speaking, one of the white walls shifted slightly, and a small pipe emerged. All of a sudden, three bright red ping-pong balls shot through the pipe.

Klaus was the first one to act. He lunged forward and snatched one of the balls before it even touched the ground. Immediately after, the dark skinned female snatched one up as it bounced in her direction. Then, the other male vampire seemed to realise what was happening at the same time as the younger vampire, and they both dived for the remaining ball – but it was the youngest one that got there first.

Suddenly, an arrow shot from another source, and hit the male vampire squarely in the chest. He yelled in pain, and then tumbled to the ground.

Straight away, two more red balls fired out of the pipe. Klaus was once again the first to shoot his hand up, and catch a ball immediately in his palm. It fell to the two females to catch the remaining one. They both charged for it, and surprisingly, the youngest one got there first – but the dark skinned girl stuck out her foot, kicking the youngest vampire roughly. The impact caused her to ricochet to the other side of the room.

When the youngest vampire was shot with a vervain dart, both Klaus and the dark skinned vampire knew what was going to happen next. She shot Klaus a filthy look, but she wasn't paying attention. The ball flew out of the pipe while she was too busy glaring at him, giving time for Klaus to dive from his standing position, and clasp the remaining ball in both hands.

She screeched in distress, and started to fly at Klaus, her fangs exposed. Klaus hissed back at her, his own fangs retracting and his eyes glowing yellow, but before they could made contact with each other, a vervain arrow stabbed her squarely in the chest. He was the only one left standing, but before he could celebrate his apparent victory, a dart hit him too, right in the side of the neck.

As he sunk to the ground, Willow Mae stepped into the room through a side door, with two grey-clad guards on either side. She lifted a walkie-talkie from her belt, and spoke into it. "I believe we have a hybrid vampire in our possession, Professor," she muttered, leaning over Klaus' limp form. "I'll have him shipped to Solitary."


	14. Chapter 14 - Theraputic Interventions

_Chapter Fourteen _

Caroline had fallen asleep on the lounge chair in the office, when she was being shaken awake. When she opened her eyes, one of the grey-uniformed guards had his gloved hands on her shoulders. It too every ounce of effort in her body to refrain from bearing her fangs in shock.

"Wake up, ma'am," he called to her. "Miss Mae wants to see you!"

Caroline pushed the guard back slightly, and sat up on her seat. "What time is it?"

"It's one-thirty, ma'am."

"A.M?" she asked incredulously. The guard nodded, and Caroline felt a surge of panic in her stomach. For a start, she had forgotten to go out and look for the source to the electricity. But more importantly, it was far too late for Willow to be calling for her already. The only reason she would want to that would be if she had figured out she was a vampire.

As she clambered to her feet, and followed the guard out of the office, she shook off her negative thoughts. If Willow knew she was a vampire, the welcome party would be a _lot _different – it definitely wouldn't just be one measly guard coming to her.

The guard led her down several more spiralling corridors, until they reached the building which the Population areas were. Willow Mae was standing in front of the middle door, the one that she had told Caroline was Solitary Confinement, and their was a huge grin on her face. She waved her hand dismissively to the guard, and then turned her beaming features to Caroline. "Daisy! You won't _believe _this!" she shouted, placing her hands on Caroline's shoulders. "I know you literally arrived this morning, but I can't think of anyone else but a psychologist who can work with this."

"What is it?" Caroline asked, trying to look interested. She didn't really care what this problem was – now that the guard had left, and Caroline had established that Willow hadn't called her to stake her. So her next task was to find the electricity source, so that she could get Klaus and the Salvatore's inside. Willow was gritting her teeth, clearly unable to withstand her excitement.

"We have never seen a vampire like this," she replied in a low voice. "I mean, we already have one in our captivity, but this…" Willow stepped back to the iron door, and twiddled the safe key to several different numbers, and then pulled it back. Caroline looked through the door – it lead only to another corridor. "Follow me."

Truthfully, Caroline was _already _getting fed up of following people through these eerie white corridors. She only hoped that this would hurry up, so she could get to the electric, get the others in, get Elena and whatever information Klaus wanted _out_, and then go back home. Along the corridor, there were no other doors except one, directly ahead. It was another hefty iron door that resembled a safe, with a multitude of locks across it. Only with this door, there was a sliding, letterbox-type window on the front. Willow strode over, her heels clicking loudly on the shiny floor, and slid the metal cover aside, and peered through briefly. When she stepped back, her smile was enormous. "Go on, take a look!" she insisted, and moved aside.

Caroline groaned inwardly, and walked over to the door. She pressed her face against the door, aligning her eyes with the narrow window – and what she saw almost made her collapse in shock.

It took everything in her not to gasp, or shout, or do something that would have drawn attention. However, what did matter was that she didn't need to go seeking out the source of the electricity anymore.

Klaus was sat in the middle of the white tiled room. Everything inside it was made from steel – there was one of the filing cabinet-esque coffins on the wall, a shining silver sink and toilet, a mirror above the sink and a chair in the centre of the room, which Klaus was occupying. He was sat with his arms folded, and was dressed in some of the pale blue attire that Caroline had seen the female vampires dressed in, and he had a white number one on the left hand side of his chest. He was looking intently at Caroline with icy blue eyes, and his mouth thin.

Caroline snapped the slider shut, and turned back to Willow.

"He's a vampire-werewolf hybrid," she told her. "Which isn't really anything new...like I said, we already have one. But this isn't just any hybrid. He is _the _hybrid! He's one of the original vampires, and he's the first ever hybrid. We've been trying to mimic the healing qualities his blood possesses for _weeks_."

"S…surely it's not safe keeping him in there," Caroline replied, trying to keep her voice raised so that Klaus would hear her. "An _Original _could surely break through that door, and out of this whole Facility."

Somehow, Willow's pearly smile managed to widen. "Yes, he could. But there is some extra strength on these walls," she replied. "Even _the _Original Hybrid couldn't break out of here easily."

"What extra strength?" asked Caroline.

Willow tapped the side of her nose. "Now, now, Daisy. I can't go giving away all the company's secrets," she put an arm firmly on Caroline's shoulders, and began to lead her away. "I'm sorry I woke you at this _ungodly _hour, but you will want to rush back and get some sleep. You'll have to be up early tomorrow, as you'll be the first to meet our new addition."

Caroline's mind was whirring. How on earth had Klaus managed to get himself killed? Did this mean that Stefan and Damon were captured too? Part of her wanted to try and bust them out as quickly as possible, and the other part wanted to scream in frustration. She had barely been in here a day, and they had already got themselves into trouble. As all these thoughts ran circles around her head, she noticed that Willow was staring at her, a perfect blonde eyebrow raised. "Oh! Er…why is that?"

"Well, you're our registered psychologist, Daisy! I want _you _to be the first one to talk to this one, and really get inside his head. I'll compile a list of necessary questions to ask him, and leave them on your desk by morning."

Caroline nodded, feeling slightly sick, and allowed Willow to walk her back to her office.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, Klaus was released from Solitary by one of the guards, and taken down to a large, gymnasium-type room for 'exercise', which was filled with male vampires, all in the standard blue uniforms. There were a lot of guards standing around the room – about two to each vampire, all holding suspicious, deadly looking weapons.<p>

Immediately, Klaus spotted Stefan and Damon standing with their arms folded in the far side of the room, talking quietly. Damon had a number one on his shirt, while Stefan had a number two. Klaus weaved his way through the vampires towards the brothers.

"Where the hell are they keeping you?" hissed Damon, when Klaus reached them.

"Solitary," replied Klaus. "Believe me, it's very droll."

"Why aren't you trying to get out of here?" asked Stefan. "You could break out of these walls immediately."

"Yeah, did you forget you're the _immortal hybrid_," muttered Damon – not too quietly, though. Several vampires looked up and eyed Klaus.

"I'm not going to start ripping people apart _just _yet, Salvatore's," replied Klaus. "Are you forgetting that we are here to get your precious Elena back? And the ultimate plan is of course, to burn this place to the ground – something that the previous vampires who were holed up in here apparently forgot to do."

"Don't forget the most important thing on your agenda," Damon added.

"What's that, then?" Klaus responded.

"Vampire Barbie, of course."

Klaus glared at Damon for a short while, but didn't retaliate. "There's no point in causing a scene. As much as I want to rip the innards out of every guard in this room and commence tearing the limbs from all the other humans that are running this show – I'm sure Caroline will pull through and give us a distraction, at some point."

"I agree," Stefan muttered. "We need to just lay low for a little while, and try and gather as much information as we can."

"Well, I don't think you're going to agree after today," Damon drawled. "Remember what the other vampires were saying last night? They have to go through _testing_ – every single day. Which means that we will all be going through those tests today," he patted Klaus on the shoulder. "Here's a bit of advice, number one to number one," he nodded at the number one on Klaus' chest. "Try and keep your emotions in check when they send you to whatever humiliating test you have to suffer through."

* * *

><p>Caroline was reading through the questions that Willow had left on her desk, and groaning to herself. She didn't know <em>how <em>she was meant to keep up the act, but part of her was glad that she was having this meeting with Klaus. It would give her a chance to ask him what the hell happened.

At exactly nine a.m., there was a knock on the door. She answered it, smiling falsely, and was greeted by one of the guards. "I have your nine a.m appointment, ma'am," he told her, and stepped aside. Klaus strode in, with his arms behind his back, fastened tightly together by a pair of nasty looking shackles. Blood was streaming down his hands. As the guard went to leave, Caroline cornered him. "Excuse me; can we take off the shackles?"

The guard looked at her through his sunglasses, and stepped towards Klaus. "I'll remove them, but you know what will happen if there's...any funny business."

"I would never hurt a lady," Klaus replied, staring at Caroline, a tiny smirk playing on his lips. The guard took out a small key from his pocket, and unlocked Klaus' shackles. Caroline grimaced: each shackle on his wrists had a row of two-inch long spikes on the inside, which were pulled from Klaus' flesh. The guard placed the shackles on top of a cabinet, and closed the door, standing by it.

"Oh…are you staying inside?" Caroline asked the guard.

"Yes," replied the guard stiffly. He stood straight-backed against the wall, and folded his arms in front of him.

This wasn't going as well as Caroline had hoped, when Willow initially told her that she would be seeing Klaus. It looked like she would have to improvise.

"Please. Take a seat," she told Klaus, watching him meaningfully. He continued to smirk, as he walked over to the lounge chair, and sat down on it. Caroline took a seat in the chair beside the lounge seat, and took the sheet of paper with the questions on it, which was attached to a clipboard. She had a feeling the guard who was standing in the office with her would no doubt go back to one of his superiors to tell them about how the new girl did, so she needed to be as realistic as possible. Her mind flashed back to her youth, when her mother had sent her to counselling following the death of her grandma, and she adjusted her posture. "How are you settling in," she looked at her clipboard purposefully, "Klaus?"

"Oh, you know. The food is good, the hospitality is excellent. And the service is unbelievable."

"I wonder if I could ask you a few questions?"

"Of course. Isn't that why I'm here?"

Caroline's eyes flickered across the page, and read out the first question. "Can you tell me how you're feeling when you're engaging in sexual liaisons with others?" Caroline blinked, and looked at the question for a second time. "I mean…erm…" she felt her face flushing. "I don't come up with the questions…" Caroline did her best to avoid eye contact with Klaus.

Klaus was grinning, and he lay back on the lounge bed. All of a sudden, his smile dropped, and he sat up suddenly. "Wait a minute," he muttered. "Am I in _therapy_?"

Caroline dropped her head so that her hair shrouded her face, and tried not to laugh. Suddenly, a crashing noise sounded from outside, and the guard straightened up. This was Caroline's chance. "You know, if you need to go outside and deal with that, I think I'm in control here," she told him quickly.

The guard pursed his lips, but ultimately decided against staying inside. He gave Caroline a curt nod, and removed himself from the office. As soon as the door was shut, Caroline flung the clipboard on the desk. "What _happened_?" she hissed to Klaus.

Klaus decided to lie back on the lounge chair again, and told Caroline everything, from Damon arriving back at the foot of the tunnel, to the selection test that he had been put through. When Caroline asked him why hadn't tried to escape already, he retaliated the same information he had already given Damon.

"Just try and cause the distraction, still," Klaus told her. "Turning off the electric may still work to our advantage. I don't know if you've noticed, but all the doors around here are electrical. It would only take a power cut for the vampires to take over this place."

"I don't know when I'm going to be able to," Caroline replied. "Willow Mae told me that I have to have tests soon – blood tests. They're going to find out I'm a vampire, and then I'll be thrown in the General Population with all the rest of them. Then we'll _all _be stuck."

"So work fast!" hissed Klaus, leaning up and grasping Caroline by the shoulders. "Have you learnt anything already?"

Caroline shook her head. "Oh…I mean yes. Last night, she told me that they'd been trying to mimic your blood…healing properties, or something."

"That explains how they cured Elena," muttered Klaus. "But I still would like to know just _how _they mimicked my blood, when I certainly didn't offer them a sample to perform tests on. Speaking of which, what other tests should I expect?"

"I don't know," replied Caroline. "I didn't get to see the testing facilities. I had to see _you _instead," she added the last sentence softly, but gave him a meaningful look.

Klaus' mouth curled upwards again. "I don't believe you weren't looking forward to it, Caroline." His hands were still holding her shoulders, but his grip had released substantially.

"I don't want to be here, Klaus…" she whispered, feeling her voice cracking. "My mom…"

"I know," Klaus silenced her quickly, placing a hand on the back of her head and pulling her forwards. He pressed his lips to her forehead, and Caroline closed her eyes. She had a sudden, vivid flashback to the image of Tyler and his anger at her sleeping with Klaus before, but none of that mattered anymore. She would never forget that Tyler cheated on her, so she shouldn't feel bad for having these small moments with Klaus.

So Caroline allowed herself to tenderly wind her arms around his shoulders, and allow him to bury his face in her neck. His breath tickled her skin, and Caroline tried to shake off how awkward this hug was – especially for someone who should have had over a thousand years of experience.

"We won't be here long," Klaus muttered into her neck. "I promise." He pulled back, and pressed his forehead to Caroline's. Her breath caught in her throat, as she realised how close to him she was. Their breath was mixing; and as they moved closer, Caroline pushed out all of her guilty thoughts, concentrating on Klaus' lips, which were looming closer.

But then there was a sharp knock on the door, alerting them that the guard was returning, and they sprang apart, suddenly. As the guard stepped back into the room, Klaus was lounging back on the seat, and Caroline was staring intently at her clipboard, trying to hide her flaming features.


End file.
